Reader-chan is here! This is the promised second chapter, but before that, shout outs
crazymel2008: You are an awesome supporter so thanks! I'm gonna publish that fic I promised you soemday *in ghetto voice*for sure!
WhatChuuKnowBoutMe: You are my spirit animal. Thank you so so much for having the exact same opinion of Sasusaku as me and it's nice to see there is someone else out there as crazily sadistic as me when it comes to my OTP!
Errybody else who reviewed or favourited or followed: You're all awesome and I love you guys!
This chapter has less angst than before but hey change is good right?
Now in typical Reader-chan style, the story is out for the big bad world to read in the middle of the night and I have had more coffee than should be allowed for seventeen year old girls. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Yes I would like to own Naruto. No I do not own it though. Yes I'm sad about it too.
Revival
Realizing you miss someone is not a fun experience. In fact, it slowly creeps onto you and then suddenly drowns you in a tidal wave of it. Sasuke, for one, was not enjoying it. He missed her and there was nothing he could do about it.
The lavender scent that had been in his house had swiftly faded until it was only in the room that had once been hers…and then it was gone even from there and it was lost completely. That was when the extent of her absence hit him. She would not be in her house anymore. She was in a different village, beyond his reach.
It made him miserable and irritable. He'd just glared at the poor genin, who had bought him a summon from Naruto, so hard that the kid literally fled the moment Sasuke slammed the door on his face with a non committal "Hn".
When Sasuke did show up at the Hokage's office, Naruto was beaming, in spite of the piles of undone paperwork around him. He jumped out of his seat the moment Sasuke took a seat himself and started what was clearly going to be an ill planned scheme to get Sasuke to help him with paperwork. Sasuke's probably done three fourths of his paperwork at the end of every month. He's pretty sure the Hyuuga girl does the other one fourth so what Naruto does sitting there escapes him.
"I am at a very special point in my life teme. It is what, I think Hinata-chan calls it a 'Precipitate'."
"Precipitate?"
"You know a steep mountain has one. You fall off of them."
"A precipice?"
"That, teme. Now stop distracting me. As I was saying, I have realized that I haven't been doing my Hokage duties very well."
"So?"
"I thought you would like to help me out here, to you know, help Konoha."
"I'm not helping you with your paperwork dobe."
"EH?"
"Hn."
"BUT, KONOHA WILL FALL TEME! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THE EXTENT OF MY NEED, KONOHA'S NEED. WHAT IF THE WIND COUNTRY DECLARES WAR ON US BECAUSE I DIDN'T SEND THEM ANY RESPONSE TO STUFF THEY SENT ME?"
"I don't care dobe."
It takes Naruto about twenty minutes to convince Sasuke and thirty minutes later Sasuke finds himself next to a drooling, sleeping Naruto. He does the paperwork anyway. He thinks it makes him think less of her. It doesn't. Then again nothing ever has.
-X-
She misses him. She doesn't like to think about it but sometimes, when sleep seems to have escaped her, she lies in bed with a suffocating kind of sadness and sometimes, she even dreams of his raven hair, pale skin and his dark, dark eyes.
She thinks it's unfair. Takeshi was genuinely nice to her. He was caring, he was polite, he was smart and all the other right things. Instead, her stupid heart had to go ahead and fall for the one guy who was a jerk, had an attitude problem and would never love her back.
She broke up with the perfect guy for the guy who was not…but maybe she thinks it's his imperfections that make him perfect; they made him real. So she tries not to think about the fact that she misses him or that she has realized that she is in love with him and probably always will be. She's given up on the "avoiding" to get over him but it hasn't worked. So she's run away.
Coward.
That's what she had turned into. She has found what seems to be a safe spot, but she hates it here. She misses Konoha and Ino and Naruto and she's run so far away for so little. Perhaps it's an appropriate punishment. She wonders if Takeshi hates her now and then hates herself for how little regret she feels when she imagines Takeshi hating her.
She wonders if Sasuke misses her, even if it is just in passing, she just wants him to miss her too. He probably doesn't though, and like always she was probably being the stupidly hopeful one, but that doesn't change how badly she wants him to miss her and how much it scares her.
Since she has to stay at Suna for a year, she takes it upon herself to drown herself in work. She's going back to how she'd become when her mother died a year ago and she's probably going to fall ill again. She regrets instantly thinking of her mother's death. She'd just come back from a mission and she hadn't had enough chakra to heal her mother…and now she was gone forever.
She'd been sent to Sasuke's about two months after that, and somehow, it had stopped hurting that much and she'd fallen right back into the hole she'd been trying so hard to get out of. She'd fallen back n love with him and he's healed her. He didn't regard her with pity which she had been trying to escape for so long. He didn't boss her around and let her boss him around a bit. He didn't offer to let her have it easy and stop cooking and stuff, she'd said she wanted to and he's agreed. It had been a refreshing change.
She remembers how scared she'd gotten the moment she realized she loved him. She also remembers how she ran away the moment her allotted three weeks were over. But what hurts the most is the fact that she will never know Sasuke's response to her sudden departure.
-X-
He is training when another one of those annoying genin arrives bearing what Sasuke suspects to be the twenty seventh summon from Naruto this month. He is already scowling before he has even entered the Hokage's office. When he does enter, he sees that something is very different from his previous visits to this office. Naruto is nervous.
"Ah! Teme you're here."
"Hn."
"That isn't even a word!"
"Why am I here dobe?"
"I need advice. I know I surprise myself there too, why would I need help from a teme with a stick up his ass…because. Just because."
He's already glaring and starting to leave the office before Naruto finishes the sentence. Of course Naruto being Naruto has somehow managed to jump at him and missed because of Sasuke's well timed shifting and now is sporting a bright red bruise on his forehead.
"No teme you don't understand, I really need help."
"You have a minute before I leave to go back to training."
"EH? HAVE SOME MERCY. COME ON TEME. I'M SERIOUS TROUBLE RIGHT NOW? HOW IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL HINATA-CHAN I WANT TO MARRY HER IF YOU WON'T HELP ME OUT?"
A delicate cough resounded through the room. Ino was standing at the door with a smirk next to a blushing Hinata. He and Naruto can't for the life of them figure out how Ino manages to creep up on people so often at moments like these without them noticing, said people being ninja.
Naruto is a blushing mess himself. He's fidgeting, opening his mouth and closing it, randomly swallowing and then almost tripping over his own feet. Sasuke does not enjoy awkward, at all, so he takes it upon himself to help out his idiot best friend.
"Hyuuga-san, I believe the dobe will spontaneously combust if you don't respond within the next few seconds"
"I-er..umm…Naruto-kun?"
Naruto apparently is too flustered to respond and merely gapes at her.
"He's listening." Ino says smirking smugly as she subtly pushes a very flushed Hinata forward.
"I…I would love to."
"EH?"
"I..um I'd love to marry you."
"REALLY HINATA-CHAN?"
"Yes."
That apparently is all the assurance Naruto needs to promptly jump over his table and rush to his now fiancée and pick her up in his arms.
"OH MY GOD! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH HINATA-CHAN. I PROMISE I'LL BE THE BEST HUSBAND EVER! SEE TEME I'M GOING TO GET MARRIED! BELIEVE IT!"
Sasuke smirked and started walking out when he heard Ino and stopped dead in his tracks.
"Naruto, I insist you send someone to get Sakura back from Suna this instant. I can't go to a wedding without my best friend. If you're too busy making kissy faces with your wife-to-be, just send Sasuke instead."
"Teme? Yeah ok, hey teme lets get all of Team 7 to come to my wedding."
"Send someone else."
"It's the sexual frustration isn't it?"
"Shut up dobe."
"Definitely the sexual frustration. Now if you'd manned up earlier and asked her out like most normal people do to people they like, you wouldn't have so much stick up your ass."
"Dobe if you want to attend your wedding alive, I would suggest you shut up."
Of course Ino was there and some choice words flew out of her lips and that's how Sasuke found himself at Suna the next week to pick Sakura up.
But Sasuke, Naruto might send have to Takeshi instead then.
-X-
The trip back from Suna had started out awkward to say the least. The tension between them was thick and so was the humidity. So uncomfortable physically and emotionally became a reality. Very few words had been exchanged between the two and it made the two even more uncomfortable.
Of course with there luck, ice breakers were only to be expected in the form of a ridiculously huge group of rogue nin who felt the need to attempt murder the moment they saw the Leaf headbands. They were no match individually, but they had number and this was going to get messy. Sasuke, being Sasuke had suggested Sakura to run the moment she could and wait for him at the "Golden Spoon" inn in the nearby village. Sakura being Sakura had told him to shove it and let her do her thing.
"Sakura, just go, I'll take care of this."
"I'm sorry I'm unwilling to hide under your skirt but these morons attacked me too so shut it you chauvinistic pig."
"Sakura you were low on chakra to begin with. Now just go, you can still heal me if I get hurt but I can't do it for you. Sakura, please just go."
She doesn't know what convinced her, the desperation in his voice or the horror on his face as he talked about her getting hurt. She doesn't like how it looks. He's very highly outnumbered and she's too low on chakra to fight much longer. She'd learnt from Tsunade-sama about medics not getting too involved in fights and as much as she wishes she didn't have to admit it, he has a point. So she looks him in the eye and says, "You better come back or I will kill you."
She sees his smirk last as she leaves the battle running as fast as she can towards the "Golden Spoon".
He does show up at the inn about six hours later covered in bruises and cuts and what he thinks is a dislocated shoulder. When he enters the room, he is attacked by a blur of pink and a mild scent of lavender and vanilla and tears marring a beautiful pair of green eyes. In that moment he doesn't care about the pain shooting up his shoulder or the rest of his body. He simply lifts his good arm and pulls her in for a hug.
"I-I was s-so scared you wouldn't come back. Who the hell takes that long to come back! You idiot! I hate you."
She's hitting his chest repeatedly and it hurts but he's got a crazy smirk on his face because he can't believe he managed to get out alive with Sakura mainly unharmed and he's holding her in his arms and he is content.
He pulls her closer into him and tucks her head under his and starts calming her down with a series of "its okay's". He is hit by a rather hard sense of déjà vu from the numerous times Sakura had done the same for him. She finally falls asleep against his chest and soon after he does too.
-X-
He wakes up to the feeling of her eyelids fluttering open against his neck and quite frankly, he loves it. Her head was resting against his good shoulder and the moment she moves the pain he's been ignoring since yesterday hits him hard and he lets out a quiet hiss.
She literally jumps off of him and apologizes for not taking care of his wounds before and instantly orders his shirt off and starts healing him. He wonders as he looks at her discreetly while she heals him if she will run away again the moment she is done, if she will be as repulsed by him as she has been for a while and honestly it scares him. Like he does with everything that scares him, Sasuke decides to not think about it. He'll relish the few moments he gets with her and enjoy them.
She is done in about fifteen minutes and he is glad to be able to use his left arm again. He says his "Thank You" and tells her he'll go get breakfast. It is only once he has read the menu that he remembers why he remembered "The Golden Spoon" inn. The food was horrible. He remembered that one time he had been forced to stay there during a mission and then been forced to eat the inedible monstrosity that was their "Our Special Delicious Breakfast Stew" because that was the only item on their breakfast menu.
No amount of hoping would deter the fate of the two regarding the stew. Like the last time, the stew was the only breakfast item on the breakfast menu. He asked the guy at the counter labeled "FOOD REQUESTS. DELICIOUS FOOD WE MAKE. DELICIOUS FOOD WE DELIVER TO YOUR ROOM" followed by the subscript "for a price" to send in two bowls of breakfast to their room.
The promised delicious food and small price were both lies. The food was horrible. Sakura doubted anything in it had been cooked to the correct degree. The vegetables were very, very raw. The meat was extremely overcooked and the viciously salty watery broth made up the stew.
"Nice move Sasuke, we won't die fighting, we'll be killed by this watery atrocity. Who made this crap? Are you sure they aren't trying to torture us via killing every taste bud we have followed by murder via saturated salt solution. It's possible you know, osmosis would really do it."
"I-"
"Oh shut up, there is a very small chance this won't give us food poisoning. In fact, I would rather have food poisoning right now than eat this shit."
"Sakura, we-"
"Which is why I think the smarter move would be to just take out the vegetables, wash them in water and hope it removes the salt and eat it."
"Hn."
"I thought you'd agree too, Sasuke."
So she picks up their bowls and starts decanting the stew to get the vegetables out, her hair falls on her face and she blows it away. He thinks it's adorable. That's when he notices the cut on her lip from yesterday and suddenly, he is inexplicably angry at whoever inflicted it. Then, an image of him kissing her just along the line of the cut hits him and it takes everything in him not to reach out and pull her to him and kiss her senseless
She doesn't love you.
You wish she did…
-X-
The wedding was supposed to be a month later. Ino, however has made sure to make a huge deal about it, cancelled Sakura's stay at Suna, effectively cutting it two months short and is still upset about the preparations.
Apparently, Sakura has grown thinner during her stay at Suna and hence has set off all the measurements for the dress Ino had had made for her. Sasuke is more worried about her health. She is still healthy, but just barely. Takeshi is worried too apparently. Takeshi has made it a habit to show up when Naruto forces the team to have ramen with him bearing bottles of nutrient supplements which in his "professional opinion," Sakura is short on. He literally shadows Sakura and it annoys him. Takeshi is a constant reminder of everything he is not, was not and should have been.
He wonders why Takeshi still tags behind her even though Sakura is no longer dating him. Perhaps, Takeshi too has fallen as deeply for her as he has. Maybe his presence annoys Takeshi just as much. If she does choose to stay with Takeshi, he won't make any move to deter it. She deserves happiness, happiness that he had taken unrightfully away from her. It will hurt, but it is her choice who she loves, and since it is not him, as long as the person she falls in love with is worthy, he will let them be.
It is probably because of this excessive over thinking that he is rather shocked when a very drunk Sakura shows up at his doorstep holding a half full bottle of alcohol.
"Sashkay"
His lack of response apparently translated to "Welcome to my humble abode" because Sakura mutters a slurred "Why thank you Sashkay" and brushed past him into his house.
"You shee, it was Hinata's bashorette partay but then…er..oh yeah! But then we'd only had sho many drinkses when Ino realished that-that- she had to go home cush Skikamaru, er, Skikakaru, that can't be right, Shika, you know right? He wash coming home. So we had to break it up. The thing ish, I had a bet wish Ino according to which I'm spposhed to stay here for a night…I think..anyway, hope you don't mind.."
She stumbled past the chairs and nearly fell twice while making her way to her room, or the room that had been hers during her stay at his place. He cautiously followed her dutifully reaching out every time she almost fell.
"What did you do to the door?"
"Nothing."
"Why won't it open Sashkay?"
Sasuke reached from behind her and turned the doorknob and opened the door.
"What the hell? I wash doing the same thing."
"Hn."
"You shay that a lot."
"Hn."
"You know I ushed to hate it but then I'm glad you shay it. When I had to live with you I wash really shad because my mother died of a dishease I couldn't cure back then and alsho the fact that you were an ass. Errybody wash sho nishe to me but it annoyed me. Shtop being nice. I know she's gone. You bein nishe to me won't bring her back. But you were jusht you. And it wash comforting. And thank you."
Her mother died. He suddenly feels like more of an ass than ever. She'd died a year ago and he'd paid it no heed. He should have figured out when she'd suddenly stopped taking care of herself like that.
Needless to say, Sasuke is shocked when Sakura pushed him back against the door and began to kiss him rather passionately. Within moments a life time of control vanished to give way to a raw hungry passion and Sasuke is kissing her back just as passionately as he flips their positions to push Sakura against the door instead so that she is sandwiched between the door and him. His lips are on fire and she is spreading a heat in him with her touch leaving the places she hasn't yearning for the same. Before he knows it he's lifted her off the floor because she barly reaches his neck in spite of those crazy six inch heels she had been wearing (and he thinks it's cute as hell) and his hands are holding her waist under her shirt and pressing her even harder into the door. She lets out a moan of "Sashkay".
Sashkay.
He backs off immediately. She is drunk and he is recklessly taking advantage of her. Sakura passes out just a few moments after he lets her go and as he catches her before she falls, he finds his skin still burns where she is touching him and he can't think of anything he wants to do more than kiss her again. But he doesn't and instead puts her down gently in her bed and pulls the covers over her. He backs out of the room before he does anything else. She is like a drug to him and he needs to back off before he gives in.
That night, for the first time Sasuke can't sleep because he can still remember the delicious feel of her lips against his and the fact that it would never happen again. He didn't deserve her and if she didn't remember, he wouldn't remind her.
-X-
She doesn't remember. Sasuke isn't surprised. He didn't expect her to. She was drunk as hell and memory loss is pretty common for drunken misadventures to be forgotten by the person who was involved in them. So he quietly hands her an aspirin and a large jug of water and a glass. She squints up at him and groans a "Thank You" and attempts to get up only to fall right into his arms. The electricity that shoots through him is hard to ignore and his mind is already thinking about the amazing kiss he shared with her only yesterday but he tells his mind to shut up and helps her to sit down in the bed.
"I'm sorry Sasuke, I-"
"Hn. It's okay. Call me if you need anything else. I'm leaving in an hour"
"Okay"
He's just leaving the room when she calls out to him.
"Sasuke?"
He stops at the door and turns back to her.
"Aa."
"I…I'm sorry for causing you any trouble that I know for a fact I must have caused."
"You didn't cause any."
"But I did just show up at your place without notice so, I-"
"It's okay."
Just before he turns she says something unexpected that stops him in his tracks.
"Takeshi-kun and I broke up."
It takes him a minute to assure himself that's what she really said.
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah."
"Do you want me to call Ino"
That gets a full blown laugh out of her. He loves the sound of it.
"No, I think I drank enough over it yesterday."
It strikes him rather odd.
Wasn't it Hinata's bachelorette party.
"I said something else didn't I?"
"Aa."
"I barely remember it but I think Ino baited me into coming here. Something about lying…"
Ino showed up a few minutes later bearing flowers and asking Sakura rather loudly if she was dating Sasuke yet. Sasuke felt his blood turn cold.
What if she remembered?
"What do you mean you're not dating him Forehead?"
"It means I'm not."
"But you can't go back to Takeshi, I can't stand him."
"I'm not going to date him again. Twice is enough times to be a bitch to someone."
As Sakura slumped back down to the table, her hair shifted from her neck to reveal a darkened bruise.
"Sakura."
"What?!"
"Sheesh! Calm down honey. I wasn't lying to my best friend was I? "
"What?!"
"You said you and Sasuke weren't getting touchy feely right?"
"Yeah so?"
"So why do you have a hickey?"
"I-what?"
"Sasuke! My, my! How naughty you two!"
Sasuke had unfrozen by now.
"I didn't give it to her."
"Are you saying she gave it to herself?"
"In a way. She fell over the doorknob and told me to not touch her."
Ino grimaced and then surprisingly bought the useless excuse.
"That actually sounds like her. I've seen it happen live."
"Hn."
"Damn it Forehead! Why weren't you on him!"
"Shut it Pig."
He did give her the hickey though. He remembers doing it. He feels a sudden sense of guilt about not confessing about it to her but if she takes it upon herself to avoid him again after that, he doesn't think he would be able to take it. He's fallen too far down a slope too steep and no matter what he can't climb back up.
-X-
Naruto's wedding is a huge affair. People showed up by the hundreds and there was much crying on the part of Hyuuga household maids while the Hyuuga's themselves remained stoic as ever. Gai-sensei and Lee took it upon themselves to cry and exclaim about the beauty to youth and showed up in their regular spandex suits.
Hinata looked beautiful. She wore off-shouldered dress which was covered in lace and had lace sleeves and she gave off an absolutely angelic look. Tenten, Ino and Sakura were the bridesmaids in short black dresses and heels. Sakura, he thought didn't just look beautiful. Her short hair tied up in a bun with minimal makeup. She was breath taking. Sasuke was the Best Man. His duties mainly involved calming down a very excited Naruto and to stop him from breaking down the door. A job he did rather effectively by hitting him on the head quite frequently.
Since there is no Maid of Honour and because of Ino's ingeniously phrased "You go Forehead!" Sasuke found himself dancing with Sakura.
After the wedding was over and the after party started, Ino came to Sasuke with a slightly annoyed Sakura.
"You see Sasuke, neither of the two of us has high alcohol tolerance and we also have a habit of drinking a lot. Since Shika-kun will be with me, I'm handing Forehead, here, to you. Take care of her. No more than two shots! Bye."
With that, Sasuke found himself facing a rather uncomfortable Sakura.
"You don't really have to."
"Aa."
"Hey! You don't get to walk away. You have to stay here till the end."
"Hn."
"Stop Sasuke!"
"Stop shouting."
"Stop being an ass."
With a sigh he followed her to the bar. He didn't like bars, they were noisy and clouded and apparently Sasuke's stormy expression told Sakura so and with that, she downed her second shot and pulled him out towards the balcony.
"You're welcome."
"Hn."
"You could just talk like normal people."
Sakura wasn't drunk but something about her told Sasuke she'd answer him honestly. So he takes a shot and asks her something he really wanted to know about.
"I'm sorry about your mother."
The surprise on her face is evident.
"Yeah."
"When you were drunk and stayed over at my place, you said I helped you get over her death."
With a sigh she leaned over the railing. The sun hit her at an angle that made it look like her skin was pure gold and her hair was pastel. He can't think of any time he's seen her look more beautiful.
"You did. Unexpectedly, actually. I was so done with being pitied and you didn't and you were nice to me and I needed that."
"Hn."
"I also fell in love with you."
He did not expect that. In fact it takes him a few seconds to process it which are enough to assure Sakura that he doesn't love her.
"I know you don't lo-oof!"
He's pulled her against himself before she can finish her sentence and he's kissing her passionately and desperately all at once. She's like air he's been gasping for ever since he came back to Konoha and denying himself and now that he's given in, there's no stopping him. She reacts almost instantly one of her small hands fisting in his hair while the other wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer. He's on fire and so is she and when his lips let go of hers they're on her neck kissing her neck as she gives him access to more to it by lifting her head and he's whispering "I love you" to her because he does. He loves her so much that it physically hurt staying away from her and finally, he is a happy man and he is content and he feels whole.
That's when he sees the hickey. It's almost healed and he wouldn't have seen it if he wasn't that close.
"Sakura?"
"Yeah."
"I kissed you and gave you the hickey when you were drunk that day."
She paused for a moment and then smiled.
"Well Sasuke-kun, I think you need to make up for it."
"I'm s-"
"Shh. Since I don't remember either of them, I think it's only fair that I'll request you to remind me now."
He smirked.
"I agree."
And with that, he kissed her again. And again. And again.
DUN DUN DUN!
Okay, I know I took some liberties with the wedding and shit cause we don't know if anybody on Naruto is Christian, but I thought it was cute so I left it there. I'm sorry but give a girl a break.
Renewal is officially over. I don't wanna fuck it up any more than it already is (because I wrote it). Now all you people who are still up in arms with the stakes and flame throwers, I have a Make-up-for-it strategy.
To make up for it, here's an extra scene that I wrote but coudn't incorporate here.
EXTRA SCENE
"Say Sasuke-kun,"
He loved the sound of that, the fact that she was calling him Sasuke-kun again.
"Aa?"
"When I was drunk did I kiss you first or did you?"
"You did."
"So you were so turned on by my awesome drunk kissing skills that you actually kissed back?"
"I was turned on by you."
"Aww, that's sweet…Sasuke-kun?"
"Aa."
"Still, you couldn't man up and ask me out and kiss me first like normal people why?"
"I-er.."
And then the unlikliest thing happened. Uchiha Sasuke blushed.
Okay, I'm fresh out of Extra scenes and fanfiction chapters. If you have any SasuSaku fanfiction prompts, do P.M. them to me I'll try to write them. Clearly, I'm a NaruHina and ShikaIno shipper (Well and NejiTen too but Kishimoto-sensei happened) too so I'll accept those too.
Please do review if you liked it, I love reviews. I wanna know if you liked it, if you thought it was shit, if you were conflicted about liking my cheap ass writing. I wanna know so send it in in the form of reviews. I'm waiting. Press that review button now and write down your thoughts!
If you didn't review: Why u no review.
Have an awesome day
Love
Reader-chan